1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to air conditioning systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Office buildings are the largest users of lair conditioning world-wide. With conventional office building air conditioning systems there is limited personal temperature control because it is very expensive or impossible to provide personal control for each area or person. Normally each room is maintained at one temperature even though different people prefer different temperatures. Women often complain of cold legs because stratification means warm air rises and temperature are lower at floor level. Surveys confirm that there is low to medium level dissatisfaction with most air conditioning systems and nothing can be done to relieve this with existing systems without considerable expense.
Air conditioning systems are very large consumers of energy. There is constant pressure to reduce energy consumption of air conditioning systems both from a cost and environmental point of view. In conventional systems the entire volume of the building is conditioned, even though much of it is not normally occupied for more than a few moments. Most large buildings incorporate energy management systems in various forms but maintain the extravagance of conditioning space which is not used. Many smaller buildings using packaged air conditioning systems have no energy management program because of cost. This is a penalty on the environment and service providers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,248 issued to Feher discloses a seatpad and backrest for vehicles using Peltier thermoelectric modules to warm and cool an occupant through the surface of the seatpad.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,336 issued to Feher discloses a joined seat and back rest construction for vehicles using Peltier thermoelectric modules to warm and cool an occupant through the surface of the seatpad. U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,439 issued to Gallup and others discloses a variable temperature seat climate control system designed for vehicles but useable in other applications where the occupant is xe2x80x9ctypically fixed in one position with a large portion of their body""s surface against the surface of a seat, isolated from the effects of the temperature conditioned air.xe2x80x9d The seat provides variable temperature air through the seat back or seat bottom to cool the occupant where his body is touching or in close proximity to the seat.
These devices are not designed to replace conventional air conditioning systems, particularly in an office building. They are designed to make seats, and particularly the seat surface, more comfortable for semi-immobile users or to reduce the surface temperature of seats exposed to the sun. The above systems favour the use of the Peltier system which is very inefficient as compared with a refrigeration system. It would be unacceptable in large installations as envisaged in the present application, but is easier to install in motor vehicles and the like where space is limited.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioning system and/or a unit therefor which will at least go some way toward overcoming the above disadvantages or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.
In a first aspect the invention consists in a self contained air conditioned seat to control the temperature climate in an air bubble generated around the seat occupant comprising:
a cooling and heating system to generate warm or cool air;
an air distribution system in the back support and arm rests which receives air from said cooling and heating system and distributes it to maintain an air bubble at a controlled temperature for the upper body and seat of the occupant;
an air distribution system beneath the seat which receives air from said cooling and heating system and distributes it to a separate air bubble for the legs of the occupant;
a controller which activates the cooling and heating and air distribution systems to maintain temperatures selected by the seat occupant and allow the occupant to have personal control of the temperature in the two zones;
temperature sensors for the controller located in one or more of the tips of the arm rests, the heat rest, beneath the seat bottom and in the return air ducts, to help maintain the air bubble temperature in the two zones.
In a second aspect the present invention consists of an air conditioning system for a building comprising:
a plurality of self-contained air conditioned seats, each adapted to control the temperature climate in an air bubble generated around the seat occupant, and
a pervasive central air conditioning system to control conditions in the general office area around the seats to provide physiologically acceptable but not necessarily comfortable, minimum and maximum temperatures throughout the building space.
To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.